Chinese grandmaster Wei Yi is a top player and one of the all-time great chess prodigies. Wei still maintains the record for being the youngest player to achieve a rating of 2700, set by GM Magnus Carlsen when he broke it at the age of 15. He was the fourth-youngest general manager in history two years ago (he is currently the eighth-youngest GM ever). The Wei regularly came in first or second on FIDE’s list of the top 100 juniors from January 2015 until the end of his junior nomination (in late 2019).
He has been in the world’s top 30 players since February 2017. After winning the Tata Steel Tournament, he made his first appearance in the top 10 in January 2024.
Early Career in Chess (2007–2012)
Wei participated in his first FIDE event in 2007 at the age of eight, in Group B of the Chinese Chess Championship. Finishing with 5/11 points, he defeated FM Fan Chen and fairly well drew GM Zhou Jianchao.
Wei participated in the under-11 division of the World School Chess Championship two years later, just before entering nine. With an impressive 8.5/9, he won the tournament by a resounding two points.
He extended his collection with two more outstanding youth titles in 2010. Both the Asian Youth Chess Championship and the World Youth Chess Championship saw Wei win the under-12 levels (FM Jan-Krzysztof Duda finished third). Having won the world under-12 championship, the 11-year-old FM champion was awarded a title.
In 2012, Wei completed the early stage of his chess career by becoming an IM. At the World Junior Championship that year, he finished 11th out of 20 competitors in the competition for 13-year-olds with 8.5/11 points. He defeated GM Richard Rapport and drew Turkish GM Alexander Ipatov, the winner of the event. Wei received his first GM norm from the tournament, and two months later, in October 2012, he added his second.
Here’s Wei beat Rapport in this particular event. With 5…c6, Wei adopts a unique line in the Nimzo-Indian defense, and the position remains fairly level for a while. Wei’s bishops dominated the board by move 23, and he built a powerful, centralized knight on e4. On move 29, he gives up the exchange to keep applying pressure to the knight who is stuck on d4. Wei wins material during a tactical struggle and closes the game with a back-rank shot.
Playing Style
Wei has a talent for taking on aggressive, strategic positions. The game following displays just how dangerous he can be. Wei creates a risky attack in the Berlin Defence of the Spanish, a known to be very drawish and boring beginning. To defeat the skilled general manager David Navara, he offers up a knight.
Wei shows his amazing attacking skills in another game. In a tense and exciting game, he ruins the position of untrained WGM Anne Haast.
Wei offers a threat in every aspect of the game. He plays some of his best games when he takes the lead. Check out this sort of “immortal” game he played in 2015 below for a real
Grandmaster At 13 Years Old (2013–2014)
At the Reykjavik Open in February 2013, Wei earned his last GM norm with a score of 7.5/10. In the event, he came in sixth place and was declared the winner over GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
At the Reykjavik Open in February 2013, Wei earned his last GM norm with a score of 7.5/10. In the event, he came in sixth place and won victors over GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
He wasn’t finished in 2013. Wei made his impact at the FIDE World Cup in August, losing to GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the third round after winning the first two rounds against GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alexei Shirov. Wei broke GM Wesley So’s record in November by being the youngest player to earn a 2600 rating; GM John Burke currently holds the record.
This is Wei’s victory over Shirov, the tactical magician. The opening is a typical Italian Najdorf, but on move 12, Wei makes a piece of sacrifice, and on move 14, he makes a pseudo-queen sacrifice! When all is said and done, Wei has three connected passing pawns for a knight in an endgame. Wei makes the excellent tactical move of Nxe6 on move 32, giving him a fourth pawn for the piece. Wei got another piece by Move 38, and he used excellent skill to take the whole point!
Wei participated in and placed in the top four in the Chinese Chess Championship in both 2013 and 2014. With 5.5/11 points in the 2013 event, he finished in fourth place. With 6.5/11 points, he finished third the next year.
Wei gave two excellent hot performances in 2014. He defeated GM Francisco Vallejo Pons in the final of the Magistral de Leon fast tournament in June to win the event. Wei helped the Chinese team win its first gold medal at an Olympiad when it scored 4/5 points on the reserve board in the 41st Chess Olympiad in August. Wei had another noteworthy result in October when the young Chinese general manager won silver at the World Junior Championship.
Three National Titles in a Row (2015–2017)
Wei had a fantastic year in 2015, breaking records in the game of chess and winning gold medals internationally, national titles, and premier tournaments.
The 15-year-old prodigy’s victory in the challengers group of the 2015 Tata Steel event in January marked the beginning of the year. He finished a half point ahead of General Manager David Navara, going unbeaten with 10.5/13 points and a 2800+ rating performance. Wei did well in the Gibraltar Masters competition in February, coming in third place overall and, more importantly, improving his ranking above 2700. He beat Carlsen’s record and became the youngest person to achieve it. The record is still in Wei’s hands today.
Then, Wei participated in the World Team Championship in April and helped the Chinese team win gold. With 7/9 points on board four, he finished undefeated and won an individual gold medal. He beat GMs Ding Liren, Wang Hao, and Yu Yangyi the following month to capture the Chinese Chess Championship for the first time. Wei became the youngest Chinese champion in history, and his achievements launched him into the world’s top 30 players.
The 16-year-old youngster defeated Vachier-Lagrave in the finals of the Magistral de Leon fast event in June to win it for the second time in a row. (As an added success for 2015, Wei defeated Cuban GM Lazaro Bruzon in July to create what is referred to as the 21st-century immortal game.) Wei defeated GMs Saleh Salem, Yuri Yovk, Alexander Areshchecko, and Ding at the Chess World Cup 2015 in September, three months later. However, Wei lost to GM Peter Svidler on tiebreaks in the quarterfinals. At last, Wei won the China Chess King Match in December, completing the year. GMs Zhao Jun, Yu, and Bu Xiangzhi were all defeated by him to win the event that included the top players in China.
If Wei’s fantastic 2015 wasn’t enough, he won two more national championships. He won three straight national championships after going unbeaten in the Chinese Chess Championship tournaments in 2016 (7.5/11 points) and 2017 (8.5/11 points).
The victory of Wei in the 2017 Danzhou Super GM Tournament was another noteworthy event at this time. With a perfect 2883 tournament performance and a 6.5/9 score, he defeated second-place GMs Le Quang Liem and Ding by a whole point. The 18-year-old Chinese superstar rose to the 14th rank in the world as a result of the event.
(2018 to 2020) Performances
By his norms, at least, Wei has been quiet lately.
With 6.5/9 points, he won the Asian National Championship in 2018. In tiebreaks against GMs Amin Tabatabaei and Liem, Wei won. Wei’s win qualified him for the 2019 FIDE World Cup, where he performed well in the fourth stage, which was held in Jerusalem. Wei defeated GMs Anish Giri and Sergey Karjakin in the first two rounds, then defeated Navara in the semifinals before falling to Nepomniachtchi in the championship match.
Wei beat GM Jeffrey Xiong in the championship match to win the 2019 Junior Speed Chess Championship. The end tiebreak match was required to choose the winner between the two strong juniors.
Current and Upcoming
Without a doubt, Wei has cemented himself as one of the top juniors and chess geniuses. The true query is whether he can meet the high standards that have been set after such a successful early career in chess.
Wei’s greatest success yet took place at the beginning of 2024 when he placed ninth on the live rating list after winning the well-known Tata Steel Chess Tournament. He defeated GMs Gukesh Dommajaru, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Giri in the playoffs after finishing first in the round-robin with 8.5/13 (+6 -2 = 5).